controversies & ethics

One of the problems isn't so much what we *do* with biotechnology, as how
what we do is generally perceived. We as scientists think "Oh, what a
clever idea, putting an arctic fish gene into strawberries".
Non-scientists, with whatever level of education, often seem to think
this is just monstrous. The issue might not really be whether what we
are doing is ethical, or whether the ethics are unique to biotech, but
rather that the level of tinkering we can achieve is vaguely felt to be
just plain unnatural. The ethical problems might really be PR problems,
and no less real for that.